One 'T' Is Enough in English

In Italian, double letters like the two t's in 'notte' represent genuinely longer consonant sounds — your mouth actually holds the sound longer. English spelling also loves double letters, as in 'letter', 'dinner', or 'summer', but these don't represent any extra length at all; they're pronounced exactly like a single consonant. Carrying the Italian habit into English can make your speech sound slightly stretched or overly careful in places where native speakers keep things quick and light. The fix is trusting your ear over the spelling: say 'letter', 'dinner', and 'summer' at a normal, quick pace, letting the double letter pass by as just one short consonant sound, no lingering. Try recording yourself saying these three words, then compare your timing to a native speaker saying the same words — are your consonants noticeably longer? Adjust and try again for about two minutes. This is a small mental shift — stop reading two letters as two sounds — but it makes your rhythm sound much more natural.